1. The Field of the Invention
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate generally to processing payments. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods of increasing the ease of making payments using e-commerce applications.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Commerce applications allow users to perform real-world monetary transactions over a communications network. Examples of commerce applications include websites and native applications. Commerce applications allow users to purchase goods and/or services using a virtual shopping cart and a checkout process. The checkout process can involve providing payment information (such as credit card or debit card information) to the commerce application to complete an order. Typically, after the payment information is submitted, the commerce application will use a payment gateway to obtain payment authorization and securely pass payment information to a payment processor.
While commerce applications can increase shopping ease and allow users to make purchases without visiting a brick and mortar store, the checkout process in many commerce applications can be inconvenient. For instance, commerce applications typically require a user to provide detailed payment information. In many cases, a user may need to fill-in up to twenty information fields. It is common for potential consumers using a commerce checkout process to have difficulty entering payment information, run-out of time, or question otherwise become frustrated with the checkout process. Such frustrations often cause potential consumers to abandon their commerce transactions. Frustration with commerce checkout processes is often exacerbated when using a mobile device due to the small screen and difficulty of typing-in large amounts of information.
To reduce the problems associated with the checkout processes, some commerce applications allow users to create an “account” that allows a user to provide payment information to the application once, and then save that payment information with the commerce application for later use. For example, during an initial purchase, a user may provide a username and password along with payment information, which is saved to an “account” associated with the user. Upon subsequent visits to that commerce website, the user may enter the username and password combination to access their account and make additional purchases without being required to re-enter the payment information. While this helps reduce some of the complications that arise from checkout processes, such systems require the commerce application to be Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) compliant and are typically only valid at a single website.
In view of the foregoing issues, some commerce applications have integrated with third parties providing “virtual wallet” services, including but not limited to PayPal™ and Google Wallet™ payment services. These virtual wallet services allow users to create an account storing their payment information that can be used across more than one commerce application. Typically, commerce applications must “integrate” with such virtual wallet services by allowing users to be redirected, mid-checkout, to a page of the virtual wallet service where the user can enter virtual wallet credentials and/or review stored payment information. The virtual wallet service performs the financial settlement itself using a financial network and then issues a credit to an account of the merchant providing the commerce application. While the virtual wallet approach can provide some advantages, many commerce applications do not want to explicitly integrate with the virtual wallet service or allow the virtual wallet service to run the transaction through their payment gateway. Additionally, checkout processes involving a virtual wallet service can often be confusing and disrupting, as a user attempting to make a purchase at a commerce application is suddenly redirected to a completely different website to complete the transaction using the virtual wallet service.
In addition to the foregoing, virtual wallets typically require that the commerce application display a “buy with the virtual wallet” button in every virtual cart. As most users are not pre-enrolled with a virtual wallet, this can be confusing and lead to abandoned carts when un-enrolled users mistakenly select the virtual wallet's “buy” button when attempting to make a traditional commerce purchase. The inconvenience of requiring the placement of a “buy with the virtual wallet” button is often increased with mobile commerce applications in which screen space is at a premium.
Accordingly, there are a number of considerations to be made in commerce checkout and payment processing.